;)
The Commentariat -- August 28, 2014
Internal links removed.
This Is a Big Fucking Deal. Margot Sanger-Katz & Kevin Quealy of the New York Times: "Every year for the last six years in a row, the Congressional Budget Office has reduced its estimate for how much the federal government will need to spend on Medicare in coming years. The latest reduction came in a report from the budget office on Wednesday morning. The changes are big. The difference between the current estimate for Medicare’s 2019 budget and the estimate for the 2019 budget four years ago is about $95 billion." The CBO report is here (pdf). ...
... Paul Waldman in the Washington Post: "... all the 'deficit hawks' out there who are deeply concerned about too much borrowing and the terrible choices our grandchildren will confront might want to write a letter of thanks to one Barack Hussein Obama.... The reasons for the slowdown [in the deficit] in Medicare spending are complicated. But a big part of it is -- you guessed it -- the Affordable Care Act. The ACA has found direct savings in Medicare with things like cuts to some provider payments.... Medicare is still the biggest driver of future deficits, but the next time you hear a conservative say we have to 'rein in entitlements,' you can remind them that nothing any president has done to achieve that goal has been nearly as effective as the reforms contained within the hated Obamacare." ...
... Sorry, Paul. Here's a winger -- Romina Boccia, a "fellow in federal budgetary affairs" for the Heritage Foundation -- who wants you to know, in her screaming headline, that the CBO report shows that the budget deficit for "Just This Year Is Huge," & in her post asserts that it's proof of the need for "entitlement reform." ...
... CW: I believe I'll have a small slice of humble pie on this myself. While wonks & pundits (at least on the left) are giving Obama the credit for this, our current Ambassador to China & former Sen. Max Baucus (ConservaD-Mont.), along with annoying former Sen. Kent Conrad (ConservaD-N.D.) were the U.S. senators insisting that the ACA be "revenue-neutral." So thanks, Max & Kent. Sorry I repeatedly suggested (as best I can recall) you were anal-retentive jerks. ...
... MEANWHILE, I see that Annoying Kent -- who, surprise, surprise, is now a lobbyist -- is in the news complaining that President Obama is "more detached" than he should be. Thanks again, Kent.
Josh Rogin & Eli Lake of the Daily Beast. "President Obama wants to decide by the end of the week whether or not his war in Iraq against the Islamic State will expand to the group's haven in eastern Syria. But nearly everything about the potential military campaign is still in flux ... from the goals of the effort to the intelligence needed to carry it out." ...
... Fred Kaplan of Slate: "Let's hope that President Obama does not bomb ISIS inside Syria -- unless, maybe, the airstrikes are coordinated with some other country's troops on the ground.... It's not likely to happen for two reasons.... First, there are no ground forces inside Syria that can both repel ISIS and serve as palatable American allies. Second, the Obama administration and the neighboring Middle Eastern countries appear to have no strategy of what an intervention in Syria might look like or of what Syrian politics should look like in its aftermath."
Karen Tumulty & Robert Costa of the Washington Post: "Both political parties are in a state of high anxiety about the possibility that President Obama will allow millions of illegal immigrants to remain in the country, fearing that White House action on the issue could change the course of November's midterm elections. In the past few days, Democratic candidates in nearly every closely fought Senate race have criticized the idea of aggressive action by Obama." ...
... Dana Milbank: "Hosted by a hard-line immigration group, the [Republican] mayor [of Lynn, Massachusetts], Judith Flanagan Kennedy, [came to Washington, D.C., &] told an alarming tale about how unaccompanied minors emigrating illegally from Guatemala have caused havoc in her fair burg.... But upon closer inspection, Kennedy's tale of woe doesn't quite add up." CW: Just another Republican politician, following in the party's tradition of telling tall tales to make an unsupportable political point.
Lauren Windsor of the Nation: "Last week, in an interview with Politico, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) outlined his plan to shut down President Obama's legislative agenda by placing riders on appropriations bills.... What McConnell didn't tell Politico was that two months ago, he made the same promise to a secret strategy conference of conservative millionaire and billionaire donors hosted by the Koch brothers.... McConnell's pledge to 'go after' Democrats on financial services -- a reference to declawing Dodd-Frank regulation -- is a key omission from his Politico interview." Windsor has the tape. A full transcript is here. ...
... Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "To a large extent, Mr. McConnell's promises are more bluster for the Republican donor base than a foolproof plan. Through a budget procedure called reconciliation, Republicans could clear a path to tax legislation or changes to entitlement programs that could pass later in the year with simple majorities in the House and the Senate. But unless a Republican majority plans to end the filibuster on legislation as Democrats ended it on some presidential nominees, spending bills with 'riders' would need 60 votes in the Senate. If the Republicans win control of the Senate, their majority is almost certain to be short of 60." ...
... Josh Israel of Think Progress: "At a Koch Brothers-hosted secret strategy conference of right-wing millionaire and billionaire political activists in June, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) promised that if his party wins control of the United States Senate this November, the Senate will not waste time on things like increasing the minimum wage for people making only about $15,000 annually. Instead, audio of his remarks obtained by The Nation reveals, his Senate will focus on repealing Wall Street reforms, environmental protections, and affordable healthcare." ...
... Brian Beutler: Mitch McConnell is "threatening to use the appropriations process as leverage to extract concessions. That's a government shutdown fight. And no matter how he plays it, he will unleash forces he and other GOP leaders have proven incapable of restraining. They can't control the plot.... Nobody's saying a government shutdown will definitely happen. But a confrontation is very likely, and Republicans in Congress are the reason. Even if they never say the words 'government shutdown.'" ...
... Kathy Obradovich of the Des Moines Register: "Congressman Steve King said today the threat of another government shutdown could be Republicans' leverage [link fixed] to pass border security and immigration legislation this fall." ...
... Molly Ball of the Atlantic: "A well-placed House Republican source tells me GOP leadership is increasingly nervous about the potential for a rebellion on the funding bill.... Officially, Republicans insist there will be no drama, although they aren't yet saying what the plan is for getting the funding bill passed." ...
... Funny Thing. Burgess Everett of Politico: "Democrats hear only one thing when Republicans talk about fighting President Barack Obama's immigration agenda or GOP plans for controlling Congress: government shutdown. In fundraising requests, media appearances and conference calls, Democrats are painting Republicans as the 'shutdown party' just in time for the midterm elections.... The shutdown talk is being stoked after recent comments by prominent Senate Republicans like Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida that predicted a confrontational stance toward Obama on spending bills if either the GOP takes the Senate or the president announces new changes to immigration policy."
The Old Boys Club I. Jake Sherman & Anna Palmer of Politico: "A detailed report commissioned by two major Republican groups -- including one backed by Karl Rove -- paints a dismal picture for Republicans, concluding female voters view the party as 'intolerant,' 'lacking in compassion' and 'stuck in the past.' Women are 'barely receptive' to Republicans' policies, and the party does 'especially poorly' with women in the Northeast and Midwest, according to an internal Crossroads GPS and American Action Network report.... One bright spot is among married women. Married women without a college degree view Republicans favorably, the polling shows. Married women prefer a Republican over a Democrat, 48 percent to 38 percent." ...
... The Old Boys Club II. "Members of Congress Called Me 'Porky.'" Lucy McCalmont of Politico: "New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand reveals in her new book that a number of her male colleagues on Capitol Hill made remarks about her weight, the New York Post and People magazine reported Wednesday.... 'It was all statements that were being made by men who were well into their 60s, 70s or 80s,' she said, in an excerpt published Wednesday of her People interview. 'They had no clue that those are inappropriate things to say to a pregnant woman or a woman who just had a baby or to women in general.'" ...
... Annie Lowrey of New York: "... to help these civic-minded geniuses understand when it is appropriate to comment on a woman's physical appearance here and now in the 21st century, I have created a flowchart."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.
... As the person who has the most appearances on 'Meet the Press,' I'll be glad to give you a lot of advice and counsel. -- John McCain to Chuck Todd
... Hadas Gold of Politico: "In a surprise appearance on MSNBC Wednesday morning, Sen. John McCain told Chuck Todd that 'Meet the Press' should not try to expand too far and should stick to focusing on the political dynamics facing the country. McCain's comments come just a few days after NBC News President Deborah Turness said the show needed more 'edge' and should do away with the one-on-one conversation in favor of a 'coffeehouse conversation.' ... Todd, who takes over hosting duties on 'Meet the Press' on Sept. 7 after the unceremonious departure of David Gregory, said he's been getting a lot of 'unsolicited advice.'"
Charles Pierce states what should be obvious, but is a necessary lesson for the likes of Maureen Dowd: "White people never get to pick black people's leaders for them." ...
... CW: Also, Pierce slips in something I hadn't realized: "detached," as in "President Obama is too detached" (see news on Kent Conrad linked above, ferinstance) is a white person's code word for "shiftless" as in "shiftless Negro." Pierce is right. I recall reading, many decades ago. that one small reason Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan was that people didn't like to see the President (Carter) carrying his own luggage (there were several photos of him, published at the time, carrying his bags onto AF1); they wanted a more "dignified" president. Now, by contrast, the white peoples want the black president & leader of the free world to be more deferential to the white peoples who run the Congress. President Obama's refusal to play obsequious Nee-gro is pissing off the white peoples. Among them, Mizz Dowd. Nicholas Kristof's column today -- "Is everyone a little bit racist?" (Answer: Yup) well might be directed at his colleague.
Garrett Epps of the Atlantic on John Roberts' extremely partisan Supreme Court: "Like Barack Obama, the chief justice came into office promising an age of apolitical comity. And like the president, he has seen his dream die." ...
... CW: Epps makes some good points about the Supremes, but his thesis is highly flawed. The difference between Roberts & Obama, of course, is who's at fault. Roberts promised comity & then proceeded to lead the four other justices in moves to the far right, gutting the venerable Voting Rights Act, campaign finance law (twice) & the ACA (the ACA two or three times, depending upon how you count), etc. As Epps points out, even in his vote upholding the constitutionality of the ACA, Roberts struck down the Medicaid expansion provision; right-wing litigants are now hoping to use that ruling to deprives millions of red-state Americans of the ACA tax break. By contrast, after the 2010 election, Obama knocked himself out to come to agreements with Congressional Republicans.
Charles Blow busts Bill O'Reilly for O'Reilly incredible claim that there's no such thing as "white privilege."
** Thomas Edsall of the New York Times on "the expanding universe of poverty capitalism. In this unique sector of the economy, costs of essential government services are shifted to the poor." ... CW: I've linked a few articles on this in the past, but Edsall does a superior job of describing the extent of this egregious phenomenon.
CW: Now here's something about which I know zip. Jared Bernstein in the New York Times: "To get the American economy on track, the government needs to drop its commitment to maintaining the dollar's reserve-currency status.... The privilege of having the world's reserve currency is one America can no longer afford." I can hear the howls from Republicans if Obama/the Fed? did so.
Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "William Kennedy Smith, who counts among his uncles two senators and a president, is going into the family business -- in the political equivalent of the mailroom. William K. Smith is one of two names that will appear on the Nov. 4 ballot for Advisory Neighborhood Commission seat 2A04, representing a sliver of Washington's Foggy Bottom area that includes the Watergate complex and, yes, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.... Smith came to national attention more than two decades ago after being accused of raping a woman in Palm Beach, Fla., when he was 30. He was acquitted...."
Beyond the Beltway
Casey Ross of the Boston Globe: "The epic battle over Market Basket that sparked an extraordinary worker revolt and captivated the public through the summer ended Wednesday when Arthur T. Demoulas reached a deal to buy the company from rival relatives for more than $1.5 billion. Market Basket's shareholders announced the deal at 11:15 p.m. after several days of suspenseful negotiations. Arthur T. Demoulas and his sisters will buy the shares of their cousin Arthur S. Demoulas and other relatives on his side of the family, who collectively own 50.5 percent of the company. In a statement stripped bare of the emotion of recent days, the company and its shareholders asked managers, employees, and customers to return to stores to help get Market Basket running again. It also announced the reinstatement of Arthur T., who had been fired as president in June." Many thanks to Julie L. for the link.
Steve Hendrix & Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: The separate arrivals each day of Bob & Maureen McDonald to their corruption trial are "sidewalk set pieces [which] have provided a riveted public with daily glimpses of the made-for-Netflix drama unfolding inside. And, according to criminal lawyers, they are as likely to be scripted as everything else in a high-stakes legal battle. The McDonnells move as if cued by a stage manager." ...
... Today's Washington Post liveblog is here. ...
... The Defense Rests. Rosalind Helderman & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Poignant, once-private moments in a deeply troubled marriage were again offered up Wednesday as a core defense in the federal corruption trial of former Virginia governor Robert F. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, as the couple's eldest daughter said her parents were almost completely estranged from one another and only faked affection in public."
** Mark Follman of Mother Jones: On the evening of Michael Brown's death, people gathered at the site. Some created a makeshift memorial, which included flowers. The cops showed up with dogs. "An officer on the street let the dog he was controlling urinate on the memorial site." Others, including Brown's mother, made another memorial, which included tea lights & rose petals pressed into his blood, still on the street. "Soon the candles and flowers had been smashed, after police drove over them.... One state official told me that people in the community saw the way Brown's body was handled as a deliberate act of intimidation, echoing the slavery era, 'when somebody was beaten or lynched and they made everybody come out and watch.' Brown's killing and the heavy-handed response to the protests were seen by many in the community as 'a declaration of war.'" ...
... CNN had some law enforcement experts on the teevee to claim that the audio that was supposed to have been taped at the time of Michael Brown's shooting might be a hoax....
... Steve M. writes that he has no idea if the tape is a hoax, but he doesn't buy the "experts"' arguments. ...
... CW: I'd add that the supposed hoaxster lawyered up & turned over a copy of the tape to local law enforcement officials, so if it was a hoax it was an incredibly stupid one & would likely subject the hoaxster to some kind of obstruction-of-justice or impeding-an-investigation charges. ...
... AND now it's time to hear from Ben Stein, who presents the racist's POV on the Michael Brown shooting death. CW: By Stein's argument, every hefty black man is "scary" & implicitly "armed," like "Cassius Clay" (not Mohammed Ali, mind you). So, if you are black, young man, you are in & of yourself armed & dangerous.
Jacques Billeaud & Gene Johnson of the AP: "The accidental shooting death of a firing-range instructor by a 9-year-old girl with an Uzi has set off a powerful debate over youngsters and guns.... Jace Zack, chief deputy for the Mohave County Attorney's Office, said the instructor was probably the most criminally negligent person involved in the accident for having allowed the child to hold the gun without enough training." ...
... Kimberly McGee & Fernanda Santos write the New York Times story. ...
... Mark Follman: "In the wake of the Arizona Uzi killing..., a tweet posted on Wednesday afternoon by NRA Women, which is part of the National Rifle Association's Women's Programs and is sponsored by gun manufacturing giant Smith & Wesson. "7 Ways Children Can Have Fun at the Shooting Range" the tweet announced, linking to a recent story that details how kids can get bored with target practice if not properly entertained. NRA Women posted the tweet at 1:51 p.m. Pacific on Wednesday; by about 3 p.m. it had been removed...."
Senate Race
Brown Fudge ... Looks a Lot Like Bullshit. Greg Sargent: "There is no GOP candidate who has raised [ObamaCare] fudgery to a higher art than Scott Brown in New Hampshire."
Presidential Race(s)
I've been indicted by that same body now for I think two counts, one of bribery, which I'm not a lawyer, so I don't really understand the details here. -- Rick Perry, on whatever those criminal charges are ...
... CW: If mangling the King's English were a criminal offense, Perry would be behind bars. ...
... NEW. This belongs down the page, where I'll stick it later. Arit John of the Atlantic: "Maybe Rick Perry should have read up on his indictment charges before he started using them as a campaign talking point. During a speech last week, the Texas governor said he was being indicted for bribery, which isn't actually true.... This is another oops moment for Perry, but it also signaled his transition into the 5th and, likely for him, final stage of indictment related grief: confusion. After grinning mugshot denial, angry ads "setting the record straight," bargaining over who should pay the lawyers and depression over a loss of Second Amendment privileges, all that's left for Perry is to be slightly unsure of what, exactly, people are accusing him of doing."
Jonathan Topaz & Kendall Breitman of Politico: "The day after Mitt Romney opened the door to another possible presidential run, a new poll shows he has a huge lead among likely 2016 Iowa Republican caucus voters. According to a USA Today/Suffolk University poll released Wednesday, 35 percent of likely GOP caucus voters would vote for the 2012 GOP nominee in 2016. When Romney's name was added to the pool, no other candidate received double-digit votes." ...
... CW: Actually, if Romney "opened the door," the crack is so narrow you might not notice door is even slightly ajar. The results of that Iowa survey are the same as the results of all the surveys that show Hillary Clinton way out in front on the Democratic side. Voters can see these people as presidential candidates because both already have been credible presidential candidates. These polls reflect name recognition & voters' lack of imagination.
Jason Noble & William Petroski of the Des Moines Register: "A former Iowa state senator concealed payments he received in exchange for defecting from one presidential campaign to another ahead of Iowa's 2012 caucuses and then obstructed an investigation into the incident. Kent Sorenson of Milo now faces up to 25 years in prison, after pleading guilty on Wednesday to two counts in federal court in Des Moines. The case revolves around Sorenson's dramatic jump from the presidential campaign of U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann to then-U.S. Rep. Ron Paul's rival campaign in late December 2011, just days before the Iowa caucuses.... According to a statement of facts accompanying Sorenson's plea agreement, he secretly negotiated with the Paul campaign over a period of months to join the campaign and received $73,000. The payments ... [were] routed through a film production company and a second company before being received by Sorenson. Those circuitous routes circumvented reporting requirements of the Federal Election Commission, ensuring the payments were kept hidden from the public....
Tim Hagle, a University of Iowa political scientist, said Sorenson's conviction will hopefully have only a minor effect on the Iowa caucuses, but he suspects that U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., may be asked questions about it because payments came from the presidential campaign of his father, former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas.
... Read the whole story. It's a hoot. The investigation began as a result of suspicions that Sorenson first accepted money from Bachmann's campaign & a Bachmann PAC, payments which Bachmann & Sorenson also routed through go-betweens. Seems Sorenson had this money-laundering scheme down pat. Almost. As Rachel Maddow likes to say, "Wash, rinse & repeat."
Over There
Paul Krugman: "OK, this has to be the funniest headline I've seen for a while, on Business Insider: The French Government Has Collapsed, And It's Partly Paul Krugman's Fault. The French prime minister has tendered his resignation amid a dispute set off by the economy minister's decision to go public with opposition to austerity orthodoxy, and since he cited me on the subject, Business Insider has made a funny. The real story, of course, is the combination of the abject failure of austerity at a Europe-wide level, and the intransigence of the policy's instigators."
News Ledes
Washington Post: "At least four hostages held in Syria by the Islamic State, including an American journalist who was recently executed by the group, were waterboarded in the early part of their captivity, according to people familiar with the treatment of the kidnapped Westerners."
New York Times: "Declaring that Russian troops had crossed into Ukraine, President Petro O. Poroshenko on Thursday canceled a planned visit to Turkey and convened a meeting of the national security council to focus on the 'marked aggravation of the situation' in the southeast of his country. The meeting of the national security council will focus on shaping a response, and Ukraine will also request a meeting of the United Nations Security Council." ...
... UPDATE. New Lede: "Supported by NATO satellite imagery showing Russian forces on the move in eastern Ukraine, its president accused Russia on Thursday of an invasion to aid the separatists, and his national security council ordered mandatory conscription to help counter what he called an 'extremely difficult' threat."
Time: "In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Tom Frieden, said the Ebola outbreak in West Africa is a 'much bigger problem than anyone anticipated.' ... But Frieden says ... Ebola can be stopped." ...
... New York Times: "As the tally of deaths from the worst known outbreak of the Ebola virus continued its seemingly inexorable rise, the World Health Organization said on Thursday that the epidemic was still accelerating and could afflict more than 20,000 people -- almost seven times the current number of reported cases -- before it could be brought under control."
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Reader Comments (13)
Let's start at the top.
Marie lands a broadside with her headline about the dramatic (by any standards but fact-free conservatives') drop in Medicare spending. My first thought, even before reading the story linked was "wonder how the wingnuts will spin this one?". I didn't have long to wait. Directly below the first link is another to a story from the Washington Post recognizing this drop and crediting the Affordable Care Act. So we have a fact. Medicare spending has been dropping. We have a real world recognition of same. Then below that, we have the response from a Heritage "expert" writing from a somewhere in the right-wing ideology mousetrap.
This "expert", Romina Boccia, according to her Heritage bio, got her start at the Charles Koch Institute, which is to fact-based economic research what Ross Douthat's blow up dolls are to real women. The bio indicates that her stunning thoughts on economics have been published in the Washington Times and the Washington Examiner, which are to real journalism what clown shoes are to cap toed Oxfords. Her genius has also been featured in the Blaze and Townhall.com, which are to...oh, never mind. You get it. The only reliably fact-based outfit that has had anything to do with her Cloud Cuckoo Land bullshit is the Atlantic. I looked that up. They published a slew of economic graphs from all points of the political compass. Her's shows the cost of Medicare skyrocketing. The exact opposite is true. But that's life in a wingnut haven like Heritage where no fact is too carved in stone to be remolded to fit the demands of right-wing ideology.
They simply cannot, under pain of death, ever acknowledge that anything the hated Nee-groe does (or any Democrat, for that matter) has any value, never mind contributing to a diminishment of the deficit. A deficit, by the way, that has been created by conservatives. But never mind that now.
Oh, and something else interesting--I use that word gingerly when talking about anything Hertige related--is her repeated use of right-wing dog whistle phrases like "European spending" and "European socialism" and "European cycles of tax and spend". What's interesting is that many European countries have adopted exactly the kind of stringent austerity measures recommended haughtily by nose-in-the-air (and head up the ass) wingnut economic "experts" like Boccia. And how has that been working out? Well, at least one government that adopted the recommendations promoted by Ms. Boccia and her fellow economic hacks has augured in; economy stagnant, no growth, dead markets, job losses, businesses closed, in the words of the Business Insider, "economic malaise".
It must be all Paul Krugman's fault. Fucking liberals. They ruin everything.
And never mind about that $95 billion saved by the ACA. That's just a....a....well, it's something. They'll figure out some story and get back to us. But for now, KILL ENTITLEMENTS!
Ben Stein.
Now there's a piece of fucking work for you. I never liked this guy. He thinks he's funny (more conservative wishful thinking about their comic abilities) but his schtick is mostly arrogance and self-regard packaged as deadpan irony (even though irony is also a quality unknown in Right-Wing World) delivered in that annoying monotone drone. But the more I find out about him, the more he comes across as a flaming asshole, a monumental, solipsistic dickhead.
So his idea is that big black guys need to be considered armed and dangerous? That they're scary and need to be treated as if they're ready to jump on some poor unsuspecting citizen of White America and beat or kill them? That even unarmed they can be killed because they're "scary"?
This is the pearl of wisdom from a guy who recently wrote a piece about how there is no racial animosity in the country, none--at least on the part of whites. Who wept at the thought of how brave white southerners faced down racism and won, and who now enjoy the company of happy-go-lucky darkies who smile and yassuh the massas until they faint with gratitude at being allowed to use the "Whites Only" drinking fountain.
You know what's scary Ben? Racist pig-dogs like you who whisk away one of the biggest problems in our society as if it were a couple of squished ants under their feet. Who pretend that any racism is only the figment of ignorant blacks who make it all up, I suppose, while burying the next unarmed black kid shot by white cops, who, like Bill Fucking O'Reilly, sniff that there's no such thing as white privilege.
Oh, and by the way, genius, Trayvon Martin wasn't threatening a cop who had no choice but to use deadly force. He was stalked and murdered by a rat bastard racist cocksucker.
Like you.
Re: Uzi. Way back in 1976, our battalion stationed in West Germany had the occasion to do some training with the Federal Border Guard ( BundesGrenSchutz). These guys were and still are heavily armed, with rifles, machine guns, rocket launchers, and at the time, the Uzi submachine gun, which I got to fire. (How ironic is the fact that Germans used an Israeli weapon!)
Anyway, I was in my 30's and in good shape. I had a hard time controlling it. It had a vicious muzzle climb, and due to its light weight, it sprayed bullets all over the place, plus it got really hot really fast. (Many a GI is alive today because the AK-47 selector switch is full auto first, causing the rounds to go high. All automatic weapons have this characteristic of muzzle climb.)
Why anyone in their right mind would let a child fire the Uzi is beyond me, since adults have difficulty firing it. Why a civilian would have a need to fire an Uzi is nbeyond my ken as well. I can just hear a hardened combat say "He won't make that mistake again!" Stupidity was rarely forgiven.
Should be "hardened combat vet"
White presidents who carry their own luggage don't project the appropriate respect for the office. However African American presidents project the appropriate respect only IF they carry everyone else's luggage. Oh..and vacationing on Martha's Vineyard while black is entirely unacceptable. I wonder how many decades will pass before history reflects the constant and vicious racial animus aimed at President Obama. What a shameful display. American Exceptionalism my ass.
CW and All,
An embarrassment of riches at this site. Thank you CW!
Great photos then/now of D-Day
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/06/scenes-from-d-day-then-and-now/100752/
click on pic to see change
mae finch
CW and All,
An embarrassment of riches at this site. Thank you CW!
Great photos then/now of D-Day
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/06/scenes-from-d-day-then-and-now/100752/
click on pic to see change
mae finch
Barbarossa: In the early 50s I trained on a Thompson submachine gun, the famous Tommygun of gangster films. It, too, was an exceedingly difficult weapon to keep from blowing out the skylights.
Why vote between 2 known liars? Florida, we are fortunate enough not to be stuck picking one liar or the other this time. We actually have an alternative. Take advantage of the opportunity. Adrian Wyllie deserves my vote. He is a honest average Floridian just as you and I , that is willing to stand up and do something for the interest of all of us here in Florida. The other candidates both Republican and Democrat are owned and controlled by special interest, like puppets and will lie to your face to gain your vote, then continue the same old agenda that we complain about year after year. Time to get off this merry-go-round, election after election, thinking it will be any different. Take a stand, vote for the candidate that loves this state and is willing to take time out of his life, effort and money to SERVE the people of Florida and stop voting for these ‘paid for’ career politicians that are only out for money and fame and have zero interest in us Floridians. Even if it’s just for honesty alone, vote for Adrian Wyllie instead of the other two (Scott/Crist) which are proven liars. The choice is yours and yours alone, if you want the same old corruption and slap in the face, go ahead and vote for one of the two puppets (Scott/Crist) OR do what is right for our (yours and your children’s) future and vote for Adrian Wyllie. Support him by donating to his campaign, spreading the word and contribute to the super brochure program which I think is very powerful. Visit his website today.
Adrian Wyllie, another Libertarian crackpot trying to grift the gullible of Florida.
Sorry to say I've never heard of Adrian Wyllie, and he may be, like Caesar's wife, above suspicion, and a good guy, but I have to say that I look askance at anyone, from wherever, attempting to foist an unworkable fantasy system upon the American public on the national, state, local, or neighborhood level.
Libertarians hold, in my opinion, some intriguing positions, but Libertarianism as a political system is a complete canard for reasons I have detailed at length on RC in the past.
As I say, I don't know squat about Mr. Wyllie or his ideas, but I'll give him a look, because even though I'm not eligible to cast a vote in the Sunshine State (a wonderful soubriquet for a state run by a furtive and manipulative mountebank like Rick Scott) I will see what he has to say because of the importance of Florida in the Electoral College.
Although I have to say that I value Mr. Singer's opinion, and Mr. Wyllie, or his agents, would have to offer significant reasons for his elevation besides the usual small government bombast.
So, we shall see.
Was watching Fox for a minute in boredom and they were having a very deep discussion on the possibility of Obama moving on immigration before the election and the wingnuts going off the deep end and threatening ANOTHER government shut down to spite him but only collectively shoot themselves in the foot for the elections. The pundits looked dead scared of what's alluded to in today's RC about the establishment losing control of the clowns in the party.
Whether we can clearly distinguish between VSP and Ass Clown in the GOP today is a whole different discussion, but one of the cronies (I don't know any of their names, shame on me. We'll just call him Unentitled White Guy with Death Glare) finished the back and forth with his genius strategy of how to move forward and win the Senate. He proposed 'spraying Valium' in the halls of Congress to make all the idiots sleep until after November and win the Senate by continuing their current brilliant strategy, do fucking nothing. He even offered to be the Valium sprayer if that's what it took.
Rarely do I see such cold hard truth come of out of Fox but he was dead serious. If only somebody could comatose Tailgunner Cruz over the next few months because we all know he's cooking up the crazy to come.
Marie: thanks so much for the link to the New York piece by Annie Lowery re the appropriate times for a male to comment on a female colleague's body (short version - NEVER). This issue came up in a family discussion this week. It seems that an older white male relative consistently offers advice to the 20 and 30 something females about their weight - too fat or too thin, whatever. They hate it, understandably. Not surprisingly, there is an anorexia issue with his own daughter. So I would add my two cents to gentlemen everywhere: it's probably never a good call to comment on a woman's body. There, I said it.